- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (2 Jan 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006551947
- ISBN-13: 978-0006551942
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 11.7 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 956,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Twelve has the sheep's clothing of a Bridget Jones' clone. Lily, the central character, is a twentysomething woman living in London with a dull job and no man. The subtitle asks "How should a young woman live now?" and Lily's quest is for a real life, an escape from temporary measures. Lily's confessional narrative tracks her confusion, her sense that she should be somewhere else, someone else. In an effort to escape the "steep rock face" of a working week, she seeks respite with weekends in the country, parties and a date with a stranger. But she can't escape the feeling that there's something missing, that she's a bit-part actor in her own life.
As Twelve progresses, Jones layers each chapter with a different character's voice: old friends, a down-to-earth neighbour and Lily's date, Colin. There are sensitive, incisive observations--"the brown centre in one of his eyes has seeped a little into its white, a trickle of colour that's blurring its edge"--and a knack with words that twists the imagination. By asking the unexpected, this first novel is unsettling, unusual and perceptive. --Jane Honey --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
‘Twelve has the sheep’s clothing of a Bridget Jones clone. Lily is a twentysomething woman living in London with a dull job and no man. The subtitle asks
“How should a young woman live now?”
and Lily’s quest is for a real life, an escape from temporary measures. Lily’s confessional narrative tracks her confusion, her sense that she should be somewhere else, someone else. In an effort to escape the
“steep rock face”
of a working week, she seeks respite with weekends in the country, parties and a date with a stranger. But she can’t escape the feeling that there’s something missing, that she’s a bit-part actor in her own life. Jones layers each chapter with a different character’s voice: old friends, a down-to-earth neighbour and Lily’s date, Colin. There are sensitive, incisive observations and a knack with words that twists the imagination. By asking the unexpected, this first novel is unsettling, unusual and perceptive.’
Amazon.co.uk
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was like reading my train of thought. It made me feel sane and made me realise that a lot of people think of the same things about people and life. Vanessa Jones has a brilliant descriptive way of perceiving life through this book.
Format:Paperback
One of these rare novels I would never have found if it wasn't for working in a library. It wasn't the cover or the title that convinced me, but the subtitle or quote on the cover saying "how should a young woman live now?" And the blurb that says "she knows that she wants to be elsewhere, but she doesn't know where elsewhere is or how to get here." I guess I'm in the same situation and that's why I could relate.
It's naughty, but when I like a paragraph or sentence in a book I make dog-ears, so I can find them again later. After putting `twelve' down there were loads of dog-eared pages ...
When people ask me what kinds of books I like I often say "books about nothing" and this book falls into that category. I just love being a fly on the wall in somebody else's life and read about ordinary stuff as long as there's some kind of structure to the story.
Vanessa Jones surprises me as the first five chapters are told from Lily's point of view, then it changes and her friends, acquaintances, neighbours and a date all get to narrate a chapter or two, in total the book amounts to twelve chapters, hence the title.
The book becomes more and more satisfying the more you read, and the real surprise is Colin - the random guy who runs after Lily and gives her his phone number.
This is one of my favourite bits in the book: "I was feeling a bit downcast, a little bit nasty, a little bit sullied - you know how it is? You have some sort of sexual encounter and you feel a bit traumatised, you've a little bit lost your reality, forgotten yourself, played the part you've always played in this plot, in this set, with a hundred different casts before. You need to remember who you are on a daily basis - what you find funny, who loves you, what they all think of you, they who don't know you in this context, stroking a stranger's head. Anyway, Josh talked me through it until I got to my front door, and once I'd got to my front door, last night had become just another funny story, just another strange encounter in a city full of strange encounters, full of lives crashing into each other and rebounding, bouncing back home."
It's naughty, but when I like a paragraph or sentence in a book I make dog-ears, so I can find them again later. After putting `twelve' down there were loads of dog-eared pages ...
When people ask me what kinds of books I like I often say "books about nothing" and this book falls into that category. I just love being a fly on the wall in somebody else's life and read about ordinary stuff as long as there's some kind of structure to the story.
Vanessa Jones surprises me as the first five chapters are told from Lily's point of view, then it changes and her friends, acquaintances, neighbours and a date all get to narrate a chapter or two, in total the book amounts to twelve chapters, hence the title.
The book becomes more and more satisfying the more you read, and the real surprise is Colin - the random guy who runs after Lily and gives her his phone number.
This is one of my favourite bits in the book: "I was feeling a bit downcast, a little bit nasty, a little bit sullied - you know how it is? You have some sort of sexual encounter and you feel a bit traumatised, you've a little bit lost your reality, forgotten yourself, played the part you've always played in this plot, in this set, with a hundred different casts before. You need to remember who you are on a daily basis - what you find funny, who loves you, what they all think of you, they who don't know you in this context, stroking a stranger's head. Anyway, Josh talked me through it until I got to my front door, and once I'd got to my front door, last night had become just another funny story, just another strange encounter in a city full of strange encounters, full of lives crashing into each other and rebounding, bouncing back home."
Format:Paperback
This book describes the world that I have inhabited for a very long time and noone else has described this quite so eloquently and precisely.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
entertaining
Why do so many English novels by female writers have to "go live in the countryside" and "share a house with a gay man, who is a good friend"? Read more
Published on 14 April 2001
A wonderful read!
A glorious debut novel for which the cover design is sadly misleading. This is no Bridget Jones' Diary but high quality literary fiction by an author who, I predict, will be a name... Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2001
Disturbing elegance
Vanessa Jones is incapable of writing an unintelligent sentence. Her first novel takes a cool, detached view of life at the end of the century. Read more
Published on 2 July 2000
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